Russell took the piece of paper with a muttered word of thanks and carried the thin sheet close to a candle to make it easier to read. The hen scratches really were a pain to try and decipher, even for his practiced eye. Hadn't the writer heard of a scribe? She certainly could have used one. For the most part the will was uneventful, just a catalog of the things that Silence had inherited from her deceased mother and the final loving words from a mother to her daughter. But the part that he was most interested in, the part that had initially caught his eye was all the way at the bottom of the page. And there it was.

Xerceis.

Anyone in Kaionar who had half a brain knew that name. Before the huge cataclysm that had led to a radical change in the power scheme in the city four years ago, the Xercies were top dogs. Their power had been nigh uncontested for generations. If they didn't hold the seat of the Viscount, then they always had their vicious rule of the underworld to rely on instead. They were dangerous. And yet he had been breaking bred with one for the past few weeks. Looking up at his companion, Russell saw the similarities now that he knew. He'd only had the misfortune of meeting a Xercies face to face a handful of times, but she had the look of one of them as far as he could remember.

Carefully he refolded the paper and tucked it into his belt for safekeeping. It wouldn't do to have Silence accidentally burn it. He'd give it back when she was sober and let her decipher it for herself. If she was half a Xercies, then Russell rightly began to worry about the identity of the father mentioned briefly in the will and the package that would need to be delivered. No doubt Silence would want to go back to Kaionar, and he wouldn't dream of stopping her from reuniting with the only blood family she had left. It was just a question of whether or not he would follow her.

Carefully he stepped around the snake when it fled the room to find somewhere safer and quieter, inspecting the room quickly for anything that looked of special note but was having very little luck in that department. His stomach growled loudly, and that's when he realized that aside from a few sips of wine, he hadn't eaten since dinner the day before. They were still very lost in the middle of the woods. "Well Silence, grab anything you want to keep. We should probably be heading back. The others will be worried that we've been gone so long. Or pissed."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click Me!

Last edited by Aero on Sun Apr 07, 2013 10:05 pm; edited 1 time in total

"Our route isn't counter-clockwise around the island, Russell. It isn't like we've missed anything dreadfully important except perhaps a birthday, but you're right we should be getting back." Now that her buzz was wearing off she felt halfway normal, she grabbed one of the old items of clothing on a whim and hid in the shadows to try it on. "I know you don't want to stay down here any longer than necessary Rusty, but I couldn't resist trying this on it looked so out of place with all this drab material. We'll look for a safe way out in just a minute." She walked back into the candlelight in a maroon colored gown that looked more like a nightgown than an actual dress, but it had looked interesting and she wanted to see what it looked like.

"If I look silly go right ahead and say it I feel tied up like a pot roast in this thing!" That was because she was a liiiittle too big to be wearing it comfortably. The thing was made to be worn by someone her size with their chest bound and a corset sucking them in an extra couple of inches. It was old and definitely had seen better days, but with a little bit of soap and water it would look three times nicer minus being a decade out of style. Trying to make it look nice wasn't easy, and getting out of it would be worse. "Russ, if you're gonna laugh make it quick I'm about to just rip this thing off and get back into my other clothes, I can't bloody breathe properly."

"I'm more worried about what the others will think when they find out we've skipped tear down and set up." Russell replied with an easy grin and averted his eyes when he saw Silence start undressing. He had zero desire to part with his manly organs on account of being caught peeping. It would be like her to threaten castration again if he was caught being crude. When she had the dress on he cast his silent appraisal with a critical eye, looking her up and down several times. "It looks good on you." He finally said after a moment and took a few steps forward to tug at the material bunched at her waist. "Mayhaps a bit on the tight side. Nothin' a little Kaionarian Ribcrusher wouldn't fix." Again his easy smile surfaced and he backed up a step, mindful of her personal space, though his smile did turn for the mischievous. "Although, if you really want me to cut you out of it, I would of course happily oblige." Not like she would, but his hand touched the hilt of one of his daggers that he kept on him at all times. Old habits died hard.

Well that was something she definitely expected from him. Not like she'd panic over it now, she'd known him long enough it shouldn't have mattered anyway. "I'll pass on the Ribcrusher, thank you, but if you'd lend me a dagger to cut this infernal thing off before I suffocate I'd be most grateful." She did her best to smile, but with the fabric being so clingy and unyielding it was proving nearly impossible. "I don't rightfully know if this is something I'd wear as anything other than a joke. Oh the hell with it." She turned around and moved her hair over one shoulder. "If you'd just open the back up I can get this off the rest of the way." She was putting all her cautions aside and putting a little trust in her friend. She wasn't about to go voicing any of that, she wanted to keep all that useless drivel to herself. She had a reputation to keep up with and tossing that to the wind wasn't a smart idea, especially around Rusty, he would tell everyone he knew, and everyone he didn't know. If he found out she wasn't as bad as she tried to be then everything up until that point would be for nothing. Why it mattered so much she didn't want to think about, but she always thought she couldn't depend on anyone but herself for anything. That wasn't true in the least but she wasn't about to admit to it.

He chuckled under his breath. "I don't think it would be much of a joke. With a bit of makeup and a haughty attitude, you could pull off noble if you wanted." His grin was casual and unassuming as ever, but the name Xerceis flashed across his eyes again. Noble born. He couldn't get that out of his head, and the offer for him to actually cut her out of the dress took him more by surprise than it probably would have under normal circumstances. Normally he would say something witty and suggestive, but he had nothing and simply put his fingers to the task of unlacing the gown. "It would be a shame to ruin this." He said quietly, tugging on the strings to loosen them, his job getting easier the more slack he had to work with. It was a familiar task that he didn't have to concentrate on to get done in a reasonable amount of time even without the aide of a knife to speed the process along. "Who knows? Maybe it'll come in handy somewhere along the way." Like when or if they found the rest of her relatives. He hoped they didn't. The Xerceis were all dead as far as he knew, but they had a startling talent for overcoming impossible odds at the worst of times. Kaionar politics would not be kind to Silence if she got too tangled up in her heritage.

When he'd gotten a good way to being done with the unlacing, she pulled about half of her hair over her other shoulder and turned to face him, her cheeks burning. "You really think I could pass for nobility...?" That was the biggest compliment she'd ever received and she felt her heart just about jump out of her chest. "Russell, that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." There was no sense in trying to hide how she felt with him after what she'd put him through over the last two days. "I've put you through so much the last few days I wouldn't know where to begin in apologizing to you." Despite the dress partially falling off her shoulder, she ignored her instinct to stay away from him at that point and hugged Russell. She'd been awful to him and although she wouldn't go so far as to 'tell' him that, she felt rather guilty. "I suppose I'll nip off to change and then we can find a safe way out of here, deal?" She didn't quite know what she wanted to do in regards to this moment, but she'd wait to see what 'he' was going to do before she made any move to actually get out of the dress.

“You give yourself too little credit, lass. A little smile here and there, and someone might even mistake you for a real upper-crust type.” Absently he wondered if she would recognize the importance of her mother's maiden name, or if it would go completely over her head. Maybe it would never be an issue at all, but still it had his palms itching. "Well, even the start of an apology definitely goes a few feet in the right direction." He chuckled and touched his hands to Silence's bare shoulders and let his hands fall to the now very open back of the dress when she hugged him. Toying with the last of the lacing, he finished loosening the dress's back and tipped up her chin with a recently freed hand, trailing his fingers along the underside of her chin. "You'll just have to make it up to me as you go, lass. I'm a patient man, I can wait." But not so patient that he could ignore a mostly undressed woman in his arms. With his other hand on her back Russell pulled Silence solidly against him and pressed his lips against hers without a second thought.

Her first kiss, her first REAL kiss and she had no idea what the heck she was doing. She kept trying to say something to him after she pulled away, and found herself unable to speak. "R-Russell. . .I. . ." She sighed and rested her head against his shoulder in embarrassment, hoping to stop blushing before she gathered her thoughts and actually looked up to say something. Sadly the blush didn't go away in time for her to think of something logical to say, but it was worth it. "Why is your hand there...? What were you-...oh hell it's not worth mentioning it now. You have pushed me into a place where I'm completely uncomfortable, and darn it I don't think I want to move!"

She had absolutely no idea why she wasn't acting the way she usually did with him, but she blamed the bottle of wine she had just burned through. "I don't really mind the rest of this...shockingly...but please move your hand. That's all I ask." She was very tempted to hit him, but the gravity of the moment was really suppressing her anger and holding her in place. Russell having his arms around her was most of what was actually holding her, and truthfully she liked it. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. "I suppose I should learn to smile shouldn't I?" 'Way to sound like an idiot.' she thought as she hid her face again.

Russell almost chuckled at the shy reaction to his advances, but it was so Silence the he had almost expected such a thing. Instead of worrying over her small retreat, he stroked her cheek turned away from him in a gentle gesture. "Aye, smiling's good." He replied absently, occupying his mouth with exploring the curve of her now bared neck instead since she seemed unwilling to face him directly. No matter, he could work around that. His mouth adventured downward until he reached the shallow joint of her shoulder and neck, leaving a long lingering kiss there. As per the request he moved his hand, but only to touch her exposed back instead, enjoying the feel of her soft warm skin and moving his hands until he could put them around her wrists. "It might be more comfortable if you were a willing participant, here." His smile was small, his voice gentle and he took her hands from their clenched position at her side. "Relax." Russell whispered, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear and gently kissed the hollow under her jaw. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He allowed enough space between them to place her hands on his shoulders before pulling her close once more with his hands on her waist. Kissing the corner of her mouth, Russell gave a slight tug to the loose dress under his hands.

"Russ...Russell stop please...!" Her hands were shaking and with everything he'd just pushed onto her she was terrified that he wouldn't listen when she told him to stop. "I can't do this, Russell." She pulled away from him on the bridge of breaking into tears but held them back, this was not the time nor the place to have a breakdown. "This is too much for me, I'm sorry. Please don't be mad." She held the dress against her body, for fear he'd pull at it again. Her voice had started to sound frantic and she couldn't bring herself to look at him. After backing away from him, she put on her original shirt having left her leggings/knickers on under the dress, and sat down against the dirt wall. It had hurt to tell him no, and she knew he wouldn't be very happy about it, but the idea of doing that just scared her beyond reason. "You just scared me, I wasn't expecting you to do that." Her hands were starting to quit shaking and she inhaled deeply to get herself together. "I-I'm so so sorry Rusty."

Surprised, he let go of Silence easily, never having been one to force a woman against her will. Unless that's what he was being paid to do. But nobody was paying him, and there was no sense in frightening her any more than she already was. His expression showed his perplexity and Russell ran his hands through his hair, inhaling deeply and collecting himself with his head tipped back to stare at the ceiling as Silence dressed herself in a more appropriate outfit given the mood turn. "Lass, I was undressing you. What did you expect to happen?" With an exasperated sigh he turned and took a couple of steps toward the door, scratching at his head absently and studied the floor as he walked, sorting things out mentally.

"Look, don't be sorry, Silence." He said finally, turning to face her and paced to where she sat against the dirt wall, stopping well outside her personal space bubble and crouched down so that they were at eye level with his forearms resting on his knees. "It's wasn't my intention to scare you. C'mon, let's get you up and out of here. I think we could both us a little fresh air." Russell rose to his feet smoothly and extended his hand for her to take if she trusted him enough.

When he held out his hand she looked at him and pulled herself to her feet. "I'm really sorry. I just panicked I didn't know what to do." Honesty was her policy, she'd stick with it. "I've never been kissed before much less anything past that." She brushed herself off and looked at him a bit sadly before trying to perk up. "I'll sound pretty silly saying this but that was the best first kiss in history; I wouldn't have changed a thing." Thinking about it made her blush again, but she noticed something behind the armoire and tried to push it aside, only barely succeeding. There was another tunnel behind it, and this time she could feel fresh air circulating through it.

"This leads to the surface somewhere, and I don't hear water so that's a plus." Nobody else knew where this place was, so if they stayed a bit longer she'd have to come back to get some of the alcohol. Most of it would fetch a hefty price in any market, since from what she'd had there wasn't a bad batch in the bunch. "Awkward moment aside, I'm glad you asked me to go to the beach. You're a great deal sweeter and more sincere than I thought before, but your secret's safe with me, promise." Somehow she didn't think her secrets were really safe with him, but that was a matter of trust. Aside from that panic she had, she didn't really think of him any differently. After all he hadn't pushed the issue and would likely not try to do anything unless she provoked him. "Suppose we should get moving then." And off she went, though she kept the folded dress under her arm.

By the forty gods… Her first kiss? Russell almost groaned, instead biting the inside of his cheek and pointedly looked somewhere else, suddenly becoming very interested in the spines of the books on the bookshelf nearby. What could he even say? It all sounded incredibly stupid in his head, so he wouldn't put his thoughts to words and ruin the moment for Silence. At least she wasn't angry about it, though he wasn't sure how to react to her comments.

Luckily Silence seemed to have found them a way out of there, and he couldn't have been more grateful for an escape route. The basement room suddenly seemed very, very small. "Oh yeah, the beach." Gods, that seemed like a lifetime away. "Well, thanks for teaching me to swim. It might come in handy some day." Russell was intensely glad to be off the topic of the kiss and took to the new subject with a light tone that was more characteristic of his identity. "Ah, lass, you're the only one who doesn't think that I'm the most charming and sensitive man they've ever met." His tone was full of playful sarcasm, but there was also some truth to that. Most people outside the circus would never mistake him for a heartless assassin.

The tunnel led up toward the surface and deposited the two outside in the thick forest a little ways from the house. Once out of the cramped passageway, Russell stretched his arms high over his head, working out the kinks that sleeping on a hardwood floor all night had left in his shoulders and looked around. "I suppose we'd best pray we're going in the right direction." He said grimly, trying to get his bearings. "I think that the Circus is back that way." He pointed in the general direction of east, figuring that would be a bette replace to start than any other option they had.

"You suddenly sound like you're walking around with a cold metal pole at your back. Did I say...- no, never mind knowing me I likely 'did' say something drastically awkward. Seems to be all I'm good at around you." She looked east and glanced around for a tall tree with lots of branches. "Time to make myself useful as more than just a feminine distraction." She had a little talent for climbing things courtesy of sleeping on roofs for a while, but had a nasty habit of falling once she got up where she wanted to be. "I never told you this but I spent just about a year on the streets myself and picked up a talent or two. I'm fairly good at climbing trees, but I'm also darn good at falling out of them. If I get wobbly you have cause to worry." With that she was up the nearest tree like a skittish squirrel and looked in the direction he'd pointed.

"You've got a lotta luck Russell! East it is!" The next thing was to get down, oh would that be a dizzying challenge. "Pulpit upstarts." she swore. "Now how to get back down..." She was too high up to jump, she'd die for sure. The only option was to climb back down the way she'd gotten up, except getting down was a far more clumsy venture than climbing up. Luckily she didn't stumble too many times or fall too far, but she "did" get a few bruises on her way down. "Let's get going before we're in more trouble or they've left without us." Her thoughts wandered to the will her mother left, but didn't feel like asking Russell about it.

"You know, try as I might, I can't really picture you as a street rat, lass." Russell called up once she was on her way up the tree. He folded his arms across his chest, watching the spectacle and winced every time she looked like she was about to fall, which was entirely too often for his comfort level. Her adventure back down the tree trunk was more harrying, and more than once he was afraid that he'd have to try and catch her if she started plummeting to her death. Which, on more than one occasion, seemed like a very definite possibility.

Only once she was back on solid ground did he relax and started in the direction of the Circus now that they knew which way to go. "Oh yes, wouldn't want to miss the performance night for Golam. Honestly lass, who thought it was a good idea to come here? They've got a population of like, fifty. I'll be glad to get to Yarrowitz. Now that's a real city. I've heard that they've got glass blowers on every corner." Russell continued on his little speech, telling Silence every rumor he'd heard in Kaionar about the sort of place that Yarrowitz was, from the believable to the outright ridiculous, and laughed at some of the tall tales himself along the way.

"I was one of them, Rusty. The last time we were here, which was just before I showed up in Kaionar, we were supposed to get a few things supply-wise and in the mayhem to follow us leaving all of it was forgotten. We have no performances here. None." The tall tales of Yarrowitz got her laughing for sure, she knew most of them and was more than willing to verify. "The glass-blowers are indeed on just about every street corner, when we get there I'll show you the best in the business. I'll even take you out for drinks if you want. You will never forget this trip, never. There are murals everywhere, people are always on about expression and color and the next big genius in the creative world. Just about everyone's at least cordial with each other, and that's just about the only place that doesn't want us to leave. It's where we're the most accepted for what we do and the joy we bring." It was almost enough to make her cry, but not quite.

"There's very little in this world that compares to the feeling you get when someone accepts you for who you are, no strings, ifs, ands, or buts. If I were going to settle down that'd be where I'd go. Not to Didienne, not to Tarz, no way in HELL I'd go to Bolarf, the only obvious choice is Yarrowitz. At least there I don't have to worry about pitchforks or glares of contempt, and everything is brightly colored and loud and fun."

The information that she'd botched a smuggling job came as little surprise to Russell. He had her pegged as the painfully honest type and more than he couldn't picture her living on the streets, he couldn't imagine her making her way by resorting to petty thievery and pickpocketing. Though he was surprised that there was a city that they actually didn't perform in along their route.

"I look forward to those drinks lass." He replied with a grin, excited for Yarrowitz and the promises of something new. From all the rumors he'd heard, and from the ones that Silence confirmed, it was guaranteed to be a horse of a different color altogether from what he was used to in Kaionar. Maybe he'd finally make some headway into his own quest there, pick up on the trail that he had long abandoned as cold and find the threads somewhere else. A new start, a new trail. He was no great connoisseur of art, so couldn't even begin to imagine the things that Silence was describing. He would believe it when he saw it, and he was certainly eager to become a believer. When she started in on the little speech about acceptance however, his smile faded a bit. "That's what the Circus is to you though, isn't it?" He asked in a distant tone. "Acceptance. We're all a bunch of misfits, cobbled together and somehow manage to make something out of this strange little gathering of freaks and weirdoes."

Oh boy did he strike a nerve with those two words. "Freaks? Weirdos? We're PEOPLE. Yes, we travel and live in tents and don't have an accepted place in society but the words 'freak' and 'weirdo' get you alienated with us faster than getting shunned by proper society for being different." She got flashbacks of kids throwing stones at her and calling her names and she shook her read, as if to rid herself of the memory. "Please don't use those words again, Russell. I'm sorry for lashing out but those words cut like knives. I know I'm not a negative person, but when I first joined the circus kids would throw rocks at me and call me a freak, then chase me back to Lusorio where I'd hide behind him in tears."

She paused just a few hundred yards from the tents and looked at the half-elf with a myriad of emotion etched on her face. "I'll try to make sure we can get you housing of your own once we get to Yarrowitz, since you probably don't want to live with me for as long as you decide to stay with us. That is if you ever decide you want to leave." She hoped he never left, she'd feel very lonely if he did. Maybe she'd miss his flirtatious ways...or maybe not.

Russell lifted his eyebrow and leveled a nonplussed look at her comments, feeling like he'd been taken sideways by them. "If we aren't freaks, then who are we?" He asked, spreading his hands. "Dragons that pretend they're common beasts, a one-eyed hack magician, a jester whose jests end in explosions, a wingless bird, a walking firestorm, and a man with a hundred faces." He tapped himself in the chest. "We're not people, we're an act. We're entertainment, a distraction. Nothing more for those who come to watch the performances, and you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that we're anything more to them." He shook his head, shoving his hands in his pockets as they walked, his tone curiously distant. "I am what others choose to see." Russell flashed her a quick look from the corner of his eye, a dark look that was closer to the face of of who he'd been in Kaionar. "If they label me a freak, then why shouldn't I embrace it? After all, I am different, and that difference kept me alive when others died pitiful deaths and ended their existence in the stinking depths of a gutter. I survived because of this. I may convince others that I'm something different, something normal, but I'll never lie to myself."

He stopped when she did, looking at the tents from a few paces behind, lingering just on the edge of the forest. "I won't stay in Yarrowitz." Russell finally said after a pause. "I have someone I need to find." And following the Circus could very well be his only chance.

The look he gave her shut her down immediately. "I see, that's how it is. . .Never thought I'd hear you say that. You know what, you...you..." She felt her palms start to warm up and she pushed him against a tree. "You make me sick, you make me the happiest girl in the world, you make me cry, hell you piss me off more often than anything else, but I can't do anything about it. Even when you said I was a freak I couldn't do anything to you for it. I don't know what to call it but I hate you I can't stand you I don't know what I'd do without you here and I sound like a babbling idiot!" She placed her hand on the tree and scorched a hand print through the bark in her rant. "You bring out the worst in me, then the best, then you go and insult me, who the hell do you think you are?!"

Her naivety was showing full strength and she didn't know a thing about how to deal with men or emotions or any combination of the two. "What am I gonna do with you...you're an impossible elf to figure out. Before I go and start lunch and get all this insanity sorted, give me one HELL of a reason not to hit you after all that you just said to and about me. Not to mention that business about the kiss." She drew her hand back and threw it forward to slap him across the head, but it didn't amount to any anger, just annoyance...What was that all about...?

Russell took the onslaught with only a darkening frown, remaining completely silent until she made to slap him. In a blink, he grabbed Silence's wrist, stopping her before she could actually go through with the action. "I'll give you this friendly warning just once, lass." He leaned slightly closer, his voice completely calm, but so low and touched with such a hint of malice that it was easy to see he had slipped back into his former persona completely. "If you want to strike me, do it when my back is turned, and pray to your gods you kill me. Or this-" He withdrew his knife with a perfectly easy practiced motion and held it between them so that she could clearly see the weapon. "-will become the best of friends with your heart." He let the threat hang in the air for a moment and dropped her wrist, pushing her shoulder lightly and stepped away from the tree and her out into the open.

Re-sheathing the knife Russell faced her fully, a neutral expression on his face. "I've shown you who I am. You hear what you want to hear and see what you want to see. I'm not going to explain myself to someone who doesn't want to listen. Come to your own conclusions." He paused a moment, considering something before continuing. "And do yourself a favor. Never call a half-elf an elf in the presence of one of those full-blooded hypocrites. They might gut you for the offense." Deliberately he turned his back, heading for the campground. "I'll pack my things."

After thinking for what seemed like an eternity over the threat and trying to get her head straight, she followed him and grabbed his arm. "Please, please Russell wait..." Saying she was sorry just wasn't enough and she knew it too well. "No amount of apologizing will ever make up for what I've done and said to you, and you can take this however you want, but I'd miss you too much to let you go over something stupid that I did out of impulse. At the risk of being stabbed, especially after these few days, can we talk this out sensibly? I was totally honest when I said I didn't know what to do about you; I'd go insane without you."

Without any sort of warning or provocation her legs buckled and she sat on the ground without a word. She wasn't crying, she refused to believe that she was crying over the fact he said he was leaving, despite her eyes watering enough to be considered tears. She pulled herself back to her feet, despite her knees shaking, and leaned against the tree. Her voice was far quieter after her stumble, and she could barely get her legs to support her weight. "I still owe you for the wolverine incident you know. In fact I owe you my life because under any other circumstances I'd have been lunch. B-By that reasoning if you're going to leave, I feel I should travel with you until I've repaid my debt. No fight, insult, threat, or argument will change my mind."

He turned, tensing when she grabbed his hand and paused mid-stride, hearing out her confession with that same neutral look on his face as before. Russell had to bite back on the first retort that came to him, knowing that anything he said could be taken wildly out of context given Silence's unstable mood at the moment. Instead he waited until she was done and let her breathe for a moment, considering what she'd said.

Russell reached into his shirt where he'd kept the will for safekeeping and took it out. "I've got someone to find, and so do you." He held the letter towards her, remaining standing after she'd slumped to the ground and made no movement to help her up. It seemed long past due that she realized who exactly it was she was getting tangled up with. It would be better is she just stayed down in case she felt the need to collapse again. Not even the tears that could clearly be seen shimmering in her eyes and threatening to spill over could sway him. "In order to find this man, I'm going to lie, steal, and kill. I will be a wanted man, and I will be hunted down. But knowing all of that, I'm going to do it anyway, because this is my life, Silence. This is who I am. You're promising to follow someone who will abandon you if you can't keep up. If you fall behind, you're on your own, and if you interfere, I will either leave you, or end you. Do you love me so much that you still plan on following?"

"I'd be lying like a poorly made rug if I said that didn't scare me, but I'll have to learn somehow, might as well start by learning from you." He used the word 'love' and somehow it just fit everything she'd been dealing with. "Love. . ." Did she really care for him so much that she loved him? It was a strong word to say the least but if she was going to follow through with this, she'd have to throw her emotions out the window at some point. "There's no way I'm letting you have all the fun, besides I feel as if I hardly know you; this is my chance to find out more." She glanced through the scrawled papers and refolded them to pack away for later. "I love you enough to follow you anywhere." Started to look like she'd need to get back into the swing of sleeping on rooftops and doing tricks for money.

"You lead, and I'll follow without question. Whether you believe me or not, I'm your friend and I refuse to betray that trust." Of course by now her whole body was screaming and she forced herself to stand upright and work through it. "I think something I said earlier was...misunderstood. When I said permanent housing I meant getting you your own tent so you wouldn't have to stay with me, if you didn't want to. I wasn't trying to make you leave, I was giving you another option or two." She put the papers in her shirt and tried to compose herself, the tears hadn't stopped and she realized that part of it wasn't really tears, it was irritation from something or another. That made this whole thing less awkward, if only slightly.

Friend. The corner of his mouth twitched up when he heard that and wondered if her definition of the word "friend" would change, or if she would begin to apply a different term to him. Though he did grow concerned. He'd heard declarations of love before of course, but hardly ever by someone who was not by their very nature dishonest about such things. Almost imperceptibly he could feel the ice crack under his feet and a faint warning echoed through his mind: Tread carefully.

"Congratulations, lass. You just apprenticed yourself as an assassin. I'll give you two lessons right now." Once she was properly on her feet he reached out and touched her face gently, wiping at her tears with his thumb. "If you cry, do it earnestly and with a purpose. Convince whoever you're crying for that you mean it. Second," This time he cupped her cheek and stood closer, mirroring the prelude to the kiss that had happened earlier, sharing her personal space with familiar intimacy, like it was something he indulged in frequently. "Show no one who you are. If they know you, they can predict you. If they can predict you, they can manipulate you, get close to you, and even kill you." His palm rested on her throat, his fingers loosely wrapped around her neck though he made no move to follow through with the threat. "People see what they want to see. Show them only what is necessary, and invent the rest. Misdirection is often a better tool than the best laid schemes." Russell stepped back and withdrew his hand, hooking his thumb in his belt. "And I have an assignment for you, a mark to follow. Consider it training on the job. Sometime this week, I am going to disappear. If you can keep track of me, then you can come with me. If you can't… well, then I'll be gone. Read your mother's will in the meantime."

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Dragons' Cove

An island (that is more of a continent) that is completely cut off from the world it is placed in. If the foreigners are anything to go by, it may be the only innately magical part of the world, feeding out to other areas. It has a delicate balance, and its nature changes depending on the actions of its inhabitants.

This makes it either perfectly pleasant or bitterly brutal to live on, depending on your era. Explore its history with caution, but take time to stop and appreciate it as well.